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Argentina's game against Puerto Rico next week is expected to be moved from Monday (U.S. time; early hours of Tuesday in the U.K.) to the following day, which will mean Alexis Mac Allister coming back later ahead of Liverpool vs Manchester United.
Mac Allister is expected to be involved for his country, but Arne Slot will have a decision to make on whether he starts a week on Sunday after a tricky opening to the new season. The midfielder is yet to complete 90 minutes this season and last did so in April.
Argentina's game is a friendly and was meant to be held in Chicago, but will be moved to Miami, Florida, and played around 24 hours later. Mac Allister will then travel back to Merseyside to link back up with his teammates.
Chicago Park District spokesman Luca Serra confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday (September 17) that the Puerto Rico match won't be played in Chicago.
"Yes, confirming that the Argentina against Puerto Rico match has been cancelled in Chicago", he said. "The promoter made the decision this morning due to low ticket sales."
The new venue has not been confirmed, but The Athletic reports that it will be Inter Miami's Hard Rock Stadium.
Should Slot choose to keep Mac Allister out of his starting XI against Manchester United, the Liverpool boss could go with Curtis Jones. He was strangely left out of Thomas Tuchel's England squad for this week's international fixtures.
Dominik Szoboszlai has also had a strong start to the season. He has played at right-back at times this season but could partner Ryan Gravenberch, with Florian Wirtz in the number 10 role.
"It is similar to Alex [Isak] but in a completely different way," Slot said when he took off Mac Allister against Burnley last month. "He missed a lot of pre-season, so he is ready for one game a week, maybe [for] 70 to 90.
"He played 90 for Argentina and he was really tired after 70.
"He doesn’t have the right build-up towards playing three games a week for 90 minutes, so it was always sure today that I would take him off after 60 minutes for him to be able to be back on the pitch again on Wednesday and for him to be on Saturday back on the pitch again.
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"I had already made one substitution in the first half, so if I then take him off at 60 minutes that would be my second one. If I then want to make [another on] 75 then in the end I can do nothing anymore.
"So, that combined with the fact the tackle was a tackle he felt — and I am not surprised by the fact he felt that tackle, by the way – it was a combination of both.
"He said it was fine and good enough to go on, although he limped a lot, so that was more his mentality I think than it was he could actually perform at his best for 15 minutes longer."
English (US) ·